For better and worse, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks at Tacoma Little Theatre is a very cute play. For some in our Sunday matinée audience, it was LOL funny. Mostly, though, patrons appeared to be charmed but not laughing, and they grumbled through its minutes-long scene changes. The jokes in Richard Alfieri's script are unremarkable, so it falls on the actors to flesh out his characters instead. I hate to be uncharitable about performances other people love - I swear to you, I do - but I wasn't persuaded.

As with most situation comedies, the synopsis is brief. A depressed widow, Lily, hires an irritable man, Michael, to teach her dance steps and, more importantly, keep her company. They get to know each other over six weeks and grow yada yada. The point is to introduce two attractive, amusing characters and convince the audience to fall in love with them. In that goal Six Dance Lessons largely succeeds, but it does so by taking advantage of a time-honored theatrical cheat: it casts actors we already know and like.

Read Christian Carvajal's full review of Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks in the Weekly Volcano's Arts Section.

TACOMA LITTLE THEATRE, SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS, THROUGH FEB. 10, 7:30 P.M. FRIDAY-SATURDAY, 2 P.M. SUNDAY, $12.50-$24.50, 210 N. I ST., TACOMA, 253.272.2281